nazareth cont’d
Nazareth began to take shape in 1740 when George Whitefi eld, a widely recognized trav- elling preacher and close friend of Benjamin Franklin, purchased a 5,000 acre parcel of land originally owned by the William Penn family. Stretching across parts of the present day Bor- oughs of Nazareth, Tatamy, and Stockertown, as well as the Townships of Lower Nazareth, Upper Nazareth, and Bushkill, the land was intended to be used for a school for orphaned African American children and a haven for English immigrants. Whitefi eld hired a small group of Moravians who had left the colony of Georgia because of confl ict over their paci- fi st beliefs to help with the building of the new community. The area was called the Barony
24 Early Fall 2011
of Nazareth, but was better known as the Barony of the Rose as the annual property tax was just one rose.
The Moravians began their work on construct- ing log cabins and a main community building, and in 1741 were able to purchase the entire Barony due to Whitefi eld’s fi nancial diffi culties. Despite confl icts with the local Lenape tribe, the Moravians continued their development with as- sistance from Count Zinzendorf, cofounder of the nearby Bethlehem Moravian community. In 1743, 33 young Moravian couples arrived from Europe and settled into communal living at the Whitefi eld House. The community rapidly grew to prosperity under a “general economy” model in which economic resources were pooled for
the benefi t of the congregation and the church owned all land. The downtown area was estab- lished with streets in the shape of a cross, and new sawmills, gristmills, and local stores were opened. Nazareth Hall, built in 1754, housed a prestigious boys’ academy and led to the found- ing of Moravian College and Theological Semi- nary in 1807. The academic institution, one of the oldest in the country, was situated in Naza- reth until its relocation to Bethlehem in 1858.
1858 served as a turning point for the area’s growth as the community was opened to non- Moravian settlers. Over the next 25 years, the population grew from 400 to 1,000 residents, and by 1900 the community was home to over 2,400 residents of varying ethnic and religious backgrounds. It was during this period that Naz- areth experienced rapid industrial growth. Some of the early manufacturing industries included textiles and carriages, as well as C.F. Martin & Co.’s guitar production. Additional growth was sparked by the arrival of cement manufacturing in the late 1800s. The Nazareth Cement Compa- ny opened its fi rst plant just outside the Borough in 1898 and was followed by the Hercules and Penn-Dixie cement plants in the early 20th cen-
Lehigh Valley Marketplace
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